How great is it to get mail? To tear into the envelope and hear from a friend? Here’s some envelope templates. Make your own out of old maps or other crazy such things. And here’s to getting real mail!

So what food best captures the romantic, red, winter-y love of February? I believe the answer is simple: it’s a big plate of wonderful, deeply delicious, chocolate brownies. Obviously.

And going beyond just February, it’s amazing how many meals I’ve made that are begging to be finished with brownies. Not pie or cake or fancy creme’ brûlée, just brownies.

Like most things, it’s often in true simplicity that we find great levels of complexity and compliment. I present to you here, for this cold winter month, warm decadence without bells and whistles or pretension: the best brownie recipe ever. Make them to finish about any meal and taste the rich love for yourself.

Heat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment, extending it up two sides, or foil. Butter the parchment or foil or spray it with a nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium heatproof bowl over gently simmering water, melt chocolate and butter together until only a couple unmelted bits remain. Off the heat, stir until smooth and fully melted. You can also do this in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring between each. Whisk in sugar, then eggs, one at a time, then vanilla and salt. Stir in flour with a spoon or flexible spatula and scrape batter into prepared pan, spread until even. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out batter-free.

So my friends Kelly Cook and Daniel Mothershed aided me this President’s Day, the same day I had set to release the album. Together we wrote a series of false quotes from all sorts of leaders of the free world.

With each statement posted advertising the new album I would giggle to myself and hum “hail to the chief”. I included all of our work below. It just made me laugh too much not to share it.

“This album is cherry! It has real teeth!”-George Washington

“Better than an extra large bathtub!”-President Taft

“More legit than I’ll ever be.”-Jefferson Davis

“They’re not as good as The Civil Wars, but who is? I listen to their new album while fighting vampires.”-Abraham Lincoln

Almanac No. 1 is a three part project: a series of 12 paintings, a 12 month publication, and a 12 song album.

After months of writing songs that attempt to strike to the core of life, then months in the studio capturing and arranging and creating moments with those songs, then months of mixing and balancing and bringing out the right and specific feel for each… THE ALBUM IS HERE!

Here is the digital release. Take a listen, buy the album, share the album with friends, family, enemies, and frienimies.

Giants & Pilgrims are sponsoring an online endeavor to encourage the sending of good words to those we love. We’re calling it the “The Great Texting Campaign”. It will primarily use prompts on Facebook.

Facebook posts will ask people to send out texts of encouragement, congratulations, thanks, apology, empathy, even comic-relief. Right then- the moment you read the post.

When you see the post on Facebook with the official GTC logo, make sure and share it to keep the good words coming. Here’s an example below:

“Stop scrolling! Send a text of encouragement to someone who needs it. Right now. Make their day.
Brought to you by “The Great Texting Campaign”, care of Giants & Pilgrims.”

You can’t say it all. You can’t say it perfectly.
But you can say something.

Love songs can be pithy, schmoltzy; full of sentiment and cliche’. We’ve tried to avoid all that with these playlists.

Here are two playlists full of earnest, beautiful, and creative songs that strike to the core of love in such a way that we can believe it.

The first playlist, “Modern/Soul”, is on Betony Coons’ spotify. We’ll post it on her Facebook.

The second playlist is from just throwing the question out there on Facebook, “What song would you/ did you play at your wedding?” The answers were really beautiful to hear! The long playlist called “Our Song” is on spotify too!